17. And another 1/3 can only name Clarence Thomas- now that's really scary.

2. I have been very depressed this week about my own reading ability

Don't get me wrong; I can read modern novels and most technical material quickly and fluently.

I just really, really struggle with things that were written more than 100 years ago. I can get through them, but they're not fun. It's not that the language has changed so much either, it's that people back in the day wrote complex and subtle things that we're just not used to.

5. Try Mark Twain. He still holds up, imo.

6. Dear XemaSab, I love you for worrying about this. But we have to find away not to be depressed

about change at this level, which I think is an inevitable part of reality, given that we exist in time. Those great old writers might have a hard time understanding some of the good writing from our time too.

Also, I think if you "practiced" for a while, you'd find your facility with the old stuff improving. One way I keep my reading hand in is to listen to audiobooks, a lot of the old classics, read by people who understand what they're saying. I highly recommend it, brings the language alive with clarity.

28. Try Edgar Allen Poe.

35. Okay, then maybe you just need to do more.

Because after a while, you forget it's hundreds of years old and just start listening to the voice. Jane Austen is a crack up once you just listen to her. She has a Dorothy Parker-like sense of humor. SH can be, too. I used to get my guys to read three plays pretty fast so they'd get comfortable with the five dick jokes and the creative cussing and settle down and listen. If you're not having fun, try reading out loud a little. Sometimes that helps, too. If I can learn to like Milton, anything is possible. lol

50. You do a lot of writing, so you're not as bad off as you might think. Try reading a short passage of

something that is motivating enough for you, but a little difficult, and then writing down exactly what the author said, but in your own words. You could approach it word by word, substituting your own word(s) for each word in the original and don't be too fussy about getting it exactly right. Just translate or paraphrase as best you can.

Thinking of example of what someone is saying is also helpful. Again, don't worry about whether it's right or not (yet) the important thing is to do it.

31. You are right, but it is because

the books written over 100 years ago were written for the upper classes, who were the educated classes. Novels today are written for the masses. That is the reason that the older novels are more complex. It isn't you.

56. I've been bouncing back and forth between

"How the Scots Saved Civilization" and "Albion's Seed" this week, and both books claim that the average person in Covenenter Scotland and Puritan America was more literate than we give them credit for. Like, "blacksmiths checking out complicated works of theology" literate.

What's changed is how authors write. The classical novels we're required to read in high school or college were written during prior times (sometimes, from many different time periods) and always reflect the usage of the language at that time.

Popular novels are and have always been this way. Hugo provides no tactical descriptions at all of the Battle of Waterloo in Les Miserables, but describes, eloquently and in detail, the plight of the Parisian poor of the 1830s, for example; by contrast, David Weber provides exhaustively detailed tactical descriptions of virtually all space battles presented in his Honor Harrington series (to the point you could reconstruct the battles if desired), but ignores any mention of any Manticoran citizens who are, as a group, disadvantaged in or disaffected with their society as it is (barely, in pencil lines) described.

[font size="0"]I've tried to make the above single sentence as grammatically correct as possible. If I didn't, well, mea culpa.[/font]

Both require an attentive reader, just for different reasons. I think you may be getting hung up on style, here, and not content.

7. The sad thing is that many of these people are perfectly intelligent.

11. Part of what I was getting to upthread

is that our educational system has been so degraded that even people who are fairly bright (such as myself haha) have serious trouble with complicated and subtle material, and it's getting worse generation by generation.

21. I'm not sure that our educational system is completely responsible for..

the problems people might have with reading and understanding difficult material. Young people today are spending more time on playing computer games and being on social media sites than they are reading books in their leisure time. I have been an avid reader from the time I learned to read but there was really nothing else to occupy my time and imagination when I was young, as was true for all of my generation. So, the reading habit was developed early on and continues to this day. I don't think it bodes well for the future generations of American citizens who are not able to understand and analyze more complex information.

33. I had a similar experience.

41. Yep, exactly the same here. I really thought everyone basically worked for

the good of the country. I also never realized how many in America were truly ignorant, I did not realize how racist this country still was and I did not realize how wacky much of religion had become.

It wasn't until George Bush that I really started to realize just how evil many were. Yes, I of course realized their were pockets of that, but never how pervasive it was across America. And with Obama, the real pervasiveness of bigotry and racism has revealed itself.

And internet crime has revealed how many cheats there really are. Since 2000 has been a real eyeopener. I've become more and more concerned that what collective good there is might not win out, and I find that distressing and concerning.

16. Remember the "Dumbing down of America"

18. What kills me is the Willful Ignorance of many.They're proud of it

There ain't no dern global warming, my trailer dun floated off like this last year too.

Not to continue my anti religious tirades from earlier, but the extent to which otherwise smart, educated people will put aside reason because their church, hate radio, or fox news tells them, just floors me. My mother is a super smart lady who has built and sold off three successful businesses from scratch, but she's also doesn't think twice about global climate change or about trying to make things better because "things will be better in the next world". That shit sounds like recorded video discovered after a mass cult suicide.

19. Oh yeah .. you got that right.

Seems all these dooms day Christo Fascists figure that they'll all be tooling around in heaven in their Rolls Royces so screw trying to make this a better world. They are so fucked in head it's unbelievable. I think the "dumbing down of this nation" is partly due to the crap that comes out of these preachers mouths every Sunday. What fools.

46. Nice! nt

25. oh it is one of their driving motivations - an ignorant peasant class

Informed consent of the governed riquires information. An education teaches the peasants how to process the information and question the source of the information. That is why they are at war with public schools.

26. Don't worry, be happy nt

30. I have only, officially, an associates of science

although I will say that Ive over 160 credit hours of biology total;0

when I try and explain even middle school science to people, they look at me like Im a goddamn alien. Which tells me they've never even heard of basic stuff. Like Pythagoras. Let alone get into history! jesus

32. Plato agreed with you...

In a famous quote, Plato essentially stated that democracy was not a good form of government because the people will fall prey to evil but charismatic leaders (sound like our recent history, say...Hitler?)

"The trick is to prevent such ignorant people from becoming the majority. At times, it seems nigh impossible to do so; curse our stupidity! "

37. Completely rational professors, in my graduate program, who had decades of experience at all

levels in American education, agree with "planned mass ignorance". They very seriously, without kidding or exaggeration, used to say that fundamental policy decisions are most strongly influenced by those who think too much education is a useless thing; people don't need to know X, Y, or Z.

40. Been saying that for decades

Ever since I started listening to Carlin in the 70's and when he came out
and told us all about how they want us to be "obedient servants" to the
real owners of this country, I've seen it slowly deteriorate.
There are three groups;
The Elderly who will never change their minds anymore
The Boomers who thought they knew it all when they are kids and think it even more today
And Generation Par-Tee, the 20+ year olds who only care if their cell phones are charged for the day.
They're the ones who will be totally controlled while the children of the wealthy hold the reigns.
Of course, if we have a revolution before that happens, they might have a chance.

55. Man, just posted the same thing the other day. YES it was part of their

plan.

Step 1: Rape and pillage and rob the treasury. Get every last dime and then some

Step 2: Make the stupider masses think the country's in a dumpster because of
all those freeloaders. Stupid, bad, freeloaders. Hate them. Don't love them
like Jesus said.

How else can you explain Jean Schmidt dropping to her knees like it was the second
coming when she first hear, erroneously ACA had failed. Swooning because
people won't be able to see a doctor because they are poor?